GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



care fo sell, but bought a number of Italian 

 colonies of Moses Quinby for him, and took 

 him in as a partner. 



We began sowing alsike that year, which 

 I believe was the first sown in Vermont. 

 The season of 1868 was not as gi-eat a 

 success as the previous year; but we made 

 some increase and secured some surplus. In 

 the fall I bought twenty colonies for myself ; 

 and as our comiiany had some fifty we 

 began the next season with seventy colonies. 

 The season was propitious, and we secured 

 some 3000 lbs. of most beautiful honey, 

 nearly all in glass boxes that I had made 

 ready the previous winter. I piled this 

 honey in the cellar in a very artistic way, 

 as I thought, and used to feast my eyes on 

 it and show it with pride to my neighbors. 

 Notices of this great crop of honey were 

 published in various pa^oers. In addition to 

 the crop of comb honey I had made a 

 'joney-extractor and secured with it 240 lbs. 

 of extracted honey from one hive — an un- 

 heard-of yield at that time. 



The next spring I was married, and moved 

 to a small farm several miles from my early 

 home, taking my share of the bees (some 

 fifty colonies) with me. During the spring 

 my father was taken sick, and he turned 

 over his share of bees (about twenty colo- 

 nies) to me, so I started the season with 

 seventy colonies; but it was hot and dry. 

 There was no white clover that year; but 

 the drouth shortened the corollas of the red 

 clover so bees worked on it as freely as they 

 usually do on white clover, and I got a small 

 crop of honey with a few swarms. The 

 next season was better, and I secured more 

 surplus honey as well as increase. 



I did not attempt in those years to increase 

 very fast, thinking it better to get a moder- 

 ate increase with a fair crop of honey than 

 to make a large increase and little honey. 

 I liave since noticed that those who become 

 excited when they get one good crop, or 

 hear of some one who has, and make a rapid 

 increase, are almost sure to go out of the 

 business later. There are too many lean, 

 ill-favored kine to eat up the well-favored 

 kine to make it pay. 



The year 1872 was propitious, and I se- 

 cured some 4000 lbs. of comb honey in 

 glass, which sold in the New York markets 

 for forty cents a pound. I also increased 

 my stock of bees. 



After a time T liad more bees tlian 1 

 thought should be kept in one place, and I 

 started my first outyard with a good many 

 new experiences. Later a cousin came to 

 me and wanted to sell me his yard of bees; 

 and as I wanted to occupy the territory 

 where they were located T bought him out ; 



and so one and another, for various causes, 

 came to me, wanting to sell their bees. I 

 see now that most of my outyards were 

 started in tliis way by buying small or large 

 yards. This method of increase has its ad- 

 vantages as well as its disadvantages. The 

 yard to be bought often has a different 

 style of frame from the one the purchas- 

 er has; or if it is the same style, the 

 frames may be one-fourth inch longer or a 

 little deeper, so as to bother if they get 

 mixed with the purchaser's. Thej' may 

 contain an unnecessai-y amount of drone 

 comb. In one yard we bought, almost the 

 first thing I did was to prune out the worse 

 than useless drone comb. After leaving all 

 that was necessary I melted up what I had 

 cut out, and made some 70 lbs. of beeswax 

 from it. 



The advantages of buying a yard of bees 

 is that you can usually buy much cheaper 

 than you can make new hives and frames 

 and fill them with foundation and bees. I 

 find I have usually secured enough surplus 

 honey the first season to pay for the bees, 

 besides more or less increase. Many want 

 to sell after a poor year; and as the next is 

 likely to be a good one, if you buy you are 

 in the swim. In one case I bought a small 

 yard and secured enough honey from it to 

 pay for it twice over, besides doubling the 

 original number of colonies the first season. 



As I have always lived where the cellar 

 of the house was in clay, and rather damp, 

 T have wintered mostly on summer stands in 

 rather large and clumsy double-walled hives. 

 Still I have sometimes had success in win- 

 tering indoors, and have nearly 100 colonies 

 in my cellar at the present time. Cellar 

 wintering is much more economical in food 

 than outdoors. Both methods have their 

 advantages as well as drawbacks. 



I have always used an open -end frame, 

 and now use almost exclusively the Lang- 

 stroth standard size. I do not like the Hoff- 

 man closed-end frames, perhaps in part 

 because I have never been accustomed to 

 them. I should judge there are two or three 

 times as many of them in use, or t'wo or 

 three times as many beekeepers using them 

 at the present time, as of the open-end 

 frame, judging from my experience in in- 

 spection work. 



If the follower-board were made more 

 substantially so it could be removed before 

 trying to remove the combs they would work 

 very well ; but I most often find the follow- 

 er-board of %-inch stuff, where I find them 

 at all, and so glued in with propolis that 

 they usually tear ajiart before they come 

 out. 



If the.-^e hives were kept free of projiolis 



